Early returns indicate Ultimate Fighter move made a big difference

The move of Ultimate Fighter to Tuesday night, with bigger name coaches in Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen, led to a significant increase in viewership.

The two-hour debut episode, which showed the fights to get into the house, did 1.51 million viewers based on the fast nationals. That would be significantly ahead of any episode of the show since moving to FX, but still below the levels the show generally did in its previous incarnation on Spike. The final daily numbers were not yet available at press time due to delays caused by a Monday holiday.

If those numbers hold up, it would be 59 percent ahead of the 947,000 viewers for the open of season 16. That season finished averaging 796,000 viewers, barely half of what the first episode of season 17 did...

makes sense, have it one when not much else prime time stuff is on and ratings go up

isk

1/24/13 4:29:02PM

There's a reason Friday nights are called the death slot.

Also, frankly it helps to have engaging and interesting coaches. Sonnen's a born orator, and his motivational remarks during the teaser are enhanced by the sweat on his brow. He lives this life, and he knows how to talk about it.

postman

1/24/13 6:37:01PM

Dumb luck I happened to watch. There seems to be some raw talent this year.

Budgellism

1/24/13 6:40:18PM

Tuesday is a good night for this show

Svartorm

1/24/13 8:05:17PM

I actually liked watching it this time, and I haven't enjoyed the show since TUF 6. They finally figured out that the audience has gotten older and "Dude, I'm drunk and I'm a crazy fighter!" is cool for young views, but weak sauce for older views.

Fighters stories can be engaging and they actually picked fighters that you can care about.

Notice no mohawked, immature pricks this season? Wasn't an accident.

postman

1/24/13 9:52:17PM

Posted by Svartorm

I actually liked watching it this time, and I haven't enjoyed the show since TUF 6. They finally figured out that the audience has gotten older and "Dude, I'm drunk and I'm a crazy fighter!" is cool for young views, but weak sauce for older views.

Fighters stories can be engaging and they actually picked fighters that you can care about.